Toshiba America Electronic Components Inc

Toshiba Expands: Toshiba America Electronic Components Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of Tokyo-based Toshiba Corp., is expanding its presence in the Irvine Spectrum business park. The Toshiba unit, whose high-tech businesses include the manufacture and distribution of computer chips, signed a three-year lease valued at $1 million for 39,686 square feet of space on Toledo Way.

Citing a lag in computer memory chip sales, Toshiba America Electronic Components Inc. fired 7% of its U.S. staff on Wednesday. The U.S. arm of one of the world's largest suppliers of semiconductors and integrated circuits laid off 38 people from its Orange County headquarters and 12 others from its offices outside Southern California. Toshiba America had 700 employees in the U.S., about 260 of them based in Orange County.

Citing a lag in computer memory chip sales, Toshiba America Electronic Components Inc. fired 7% of its U.S. staff on Wednesday. The U.S. arm of one of the world's largest suppliers of semiconductors and integrated circuits laid off 38 people from its Orange County headquarters and 12 others from its offices outside Southern California. Toshiba America had 700 employees in the U.S., about 260 of them based in Orange County.

Toshiba Expands: Toshiba America Electronic Components Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of Tokyo-based Toshiba Corp., is expanding its presence in the Irvine Spectrum business park. The Toshiba unit, whose high-tech businesses include the manufacture and distribution of computer chips, signed a three-year lease valued at $1 million for 39,686 square feet of space on Toledo Way.

Toshiba America Electronic Components Inc. said Monday that Toshiba Corp. has invested more than $350 million in a production facility that will help pave the way for a new generation of large-sized liquid crystal displays. The Irvine engineering and manufacturing company said in a press release that the facility, in Fukaya, north of Tokyo, will produce 25,000 larger LCDs a month starting next year.

Toshiba Corp., the Japanese electronics company, said it will close a California semiconductor plant and cut 250 workers so it can move operations to more efficient plants in Japan. The plant in Sunnyvale, south of San Francisco, assembles prototypes of specialty chips that are used in a wide variety of electronic devices. It will start to shut down later this month and will be completely closed by June, Toshiba said.

* Toshiba America Electronic Components Inc. in Irvine has appointed Masaaki Nomi president. He succeeds Hisashi Izumi, who will return to Toshiba Corp.'s headquarters in Tokyo. Nomi has been with Toshiba since 1976, most recently as vice president of electronic devices sales and marketing for the Semiconductor group in Japan. * Datum Inc. in Irvine appointed Alfred F. Boschulte to its board of directors. Boschulte is president and chief executive of Detecon Inc.

Two Orange County teachers were among five educators honored Wednesday with California's "Teacher of the Year 2001" designation. Scott Charles Malloy, a math teacher at Brea Olinda High School, and Dalynn Smith-Malek, an art teacher at Laguna Hills High, were recognized during a meeting of the State Board of Education in Sacramento. The teachers, who were nominated by their districts and chosen by a state panel, beat out 60 other educators in the competition.

Toshiba America Electronic Components Inc. said it will cut its work force by about 7% because of expected weak revenue. The semiconductor maker said it is reducing its work force nationally because of the weak market and a cost-cutting program it began 18 months ago that has resulted in higher productivity. The company did not release the total number of employees affected. Executives could not be reached for immediate comment.